Editorial May 18, 1974 Issue

Why Evil?

Carl J. Welz

There are some things that are puzzling, and one of them is why we have to contend with evil. We know that such things as selfishness, hate, fear, dishonesty, disease, are unreal, and we can prove it. But why they seem to be real—we only know that they do.

We also know, though, that time spent in trying to answer the question is a waste. It is like trying to explain why you stole your best friend's wallet when you didn't. You may have been the last one to see it. You may have had it in your hand, and several people may have seen you with it. The evidence says you stole it. But you didn't, and you can only explain that you didn't—never that you did. Yet in such a circumstance you would have to contend with the belief that you are guilty until that belief is destroyed.

Christian Science teaches us that God is All and He is good; therefore evil is unreal. But Mary Baker Eddy asks us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Who, that has felt the perilous beliefs in life, substance, and intelligence separated from God, can say that there is no error of belief?" Preceding this, on the same page, we find, "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good." Science and Health, p. 450;

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Editorial
Learning to Say "No"
May 18, 1974
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